Mastering the art of setting your effects pedal levels is so important when setting up your gear. However, the pressure associated with ‘getting the perfect tone’ can be daunting, especially for new guitar players.
Many pedal players put down their gear, randomly twiddle a few knobs, play a couple of licks, then step away and hope for the best. They don’t actually have a strategy to help their setup process.
How do I know? Because I was once one of them.
But the way you set your pedal levels is just as important as choosing the pedals themselves.
Incorrectly set levels can lead to all kinds of sound issues, from unexpected volume spikes and drops that disrupt your performance to unwanted distortion that can muddy your guitar’s sound.
In this guide, we’ll explore one way (there are many) to set effects pedal levels—or at least the starting point for doing so.
Key Takeaways
- Setting the levels correctly on your guitar pedals helps avoid unwanted surprises and noises.
- Start with your pedals in a neutral position, tweak the settings of each pedal, balance the output, and repeat as necessary.
- Make a note of your settings for future reference.
Table of Contents
How To Set Levels on Guitar Pedals
When you take the time to set your levels correctly, you aim to ensure that your guitar sound is clear, balanced, and audible. These three factors are essential in the majority of guitar sounds, regardless of the style or genre you play.
Here’s the method I use to set the levels on my guitar pedals effectively.
1. Set up your guitar and amplifier
There’s a famous phrase in the world of music production, “You can’t polish a turd.” And that is especially true when setting up your guitar pedals and gear.
Before you turn on your pedalboard, you need to make sure the foundations sound good. Plug your guitar into your amp and get the tone exactly how you want it. Set your gain, volume, and, importantly, the EQ.
I like to start with everything on zero and gradually add until I find a tone I’m happy with.
Work hard to find the best sound possible—this might take a lot of experimentation. Your tone might sound raw or exposed, especially if your amp or room has no reverb, but it should sound good. This tone is the foundation upon which everything else will build.
2. Find unity gain
A key concept in setting pedal levels is finding “unity gain.” Unity gain is when the output signal’s volume (when the pedal is activated) is the same as the input signal’s volume (when the pedal is deactivated). Simply put, your pedal doesn’t increase or decrease in volume when you turn it on.
By finding unity gain, you can ensure that your pedal is not unintentionally amplifying or diminishing the signal.
Why is it important to find unity gain?
- It preserves tone quality: By maintaining the original signal level, unity gain helps preserve your guitar’s natural sound. It prevents any alterations in tone caused by unwanted volume increases or decreases.
- Helps with consistency: Setting unity gain across your pedalboard ensures that your sound levels are consistent, whether the pedal is on or off. This consistency is vital during live performances and studio sessions, where control over your sound is essential.
- Can help prevent feedback and distortion: Incorrect level settings can lead to feedback or distortion, which can detract from the quality of your performance. Unity gain helps prevent these issues by stabilizing your signal levels.
To find unity gain:
- To start, set all your pedal’s knobs to 12 o clock – this is a good starting point for most pedals.
- Play your guitar with the pedal turned off and listen to the volume.
- Turn the pedal on and adjust its output level until the volume sounds at the same level as when the pedal is off. To be extra precise, you can use a Db meter here, but I suggest you use your ears as this doesn’t have to be a precise science.
- You might need to go back and forth tweaking to really pinpoint the right levels. You’ll notice that changing one pedal can affect the others.
- Repeat this for all your pedals until you have a nice balance across your pedalboard.
3. Shape your tone (at every stage)
After thinking about my own setup process, I decided tone shaping is something I’m doing all the time at every step of setting my levels. It’s a constant balancing act between tone and volume. However, it’s my view that after finding unity gain, you’re in a good position to start tone shaping.
Arguably, this is not exactly setting the levels. But each tonal setting on your pedals can affect the overall sound level, so I can’t write this article without mentioning it.
Here’s one way to shape your sound exactly how you want it.
- Think about each pedal’s role: Identify what you want each pedal to do. For example, overdrives add warmth, while delays offer depth. Think about how this impacts your sound.
- Start with reference tones: Use the tone of a favorite song or guitarist as your starting point. Play with your settings to get your tone as close to that as you can. Of course, feel free to add a touch of your own personality into the tone, too.
- Experiment with pedal order: Your pedal order makes a big difference. If you’re not happy with your pedal order, move things around and experiment with different positions. Be aware that this can significantly affect the sound of your other pedals.
- Fine-tune settings: Begin with your pedal at unity gain, then adjust the settings gradually until you find the sound you’re looking for. It’s a good idea to make these adjustments in the context of where you plan to use them, for example, while playing at home or in the rehearsal room with a band.
4. Set the Volume Level on your Pedals
When you set the volume (or output) of your pedals, you aim to equalize the volume of your clean and affected sounds throughout the whole pedalboard.
But in this context, equal doesn’t necessarily mean every pedal needs to be the same volume. It’s very likely you’ll want some pedals louder than others. Maybe you want to stand out for a solo or make your vibe pedal really stand out.
Personally, I like to have my overdrives about 1db (a little bit) louder than my clean sounds to give them a bit of extra bite.
When you’ve set the volume levels correctly, your pedalboard will have a similar, or at least planned, volume across all your pedals when they are on and off. Doing this correctly will prevent any unwanted volume changes when turning your pedals on or off while playing.
To volume match your pedals:
- Play through your full effects chain. It’s also useful to try this with your band later (if you’re playing with one), as things sound different in the mix.
- Listen to how the engaged pedal interacts with the other pedals around it.
- Adjust the pedal’s volume setting to ensure it fits well into your overall sound when turned on without causing unwanted dips or spikes in volume.
As a general rule, you might want to work through your pedals in this order:
Overdrives > Modulating effects > Time-based effects. - Repeat this for all your pedals. This is a balancing act; changing one pedal will likely change the others, so you need to find a position where everything complements, enhances, and synergizes with one another.
5. Make a note of your settings
When you’ve found a sound you like, don’t let it go. The knobs on pedals seem to always find a way to move around, and I guarantee they won’t be in the same position when you next set up to play.
Write down your settings. Or, at least take a picture of them. Some players even stick a piece of masking tape to their pedal and scribble their settings down on there. It doesn’t matter how you record your settings. Just do it.
But there’s one thing I need to tell you.
Even with the same settings, the same guitar, the same room, the same… everything, your tone will probably sound different the next time you play. This is due to the tone’s unpredictable, or maybe predictable, nature.
But if you write down your settings, you’ll have a great starting point for setting the levels on your pedals. At least this way, you’re not starting from scratch every time.
To Sum Up
So these are some of the common techniques I like to use when setting up my pedals. But what works for me might not work for you.
Use this guide to help you get started, but don’t forget to use your ears and experiment.
Some days, everything will click and sound better than ever. Some days, not so much. These are the wonderful frustrations we deal with every day as guitar players.
FAQs
What does level do on a pedal?
The level on a pedal controls the volume or intensity of the effect produced by the pedal.
Can I use gain as volume?
Yes… and no. In some guitar pedals, like overdrive, distortion, and fuzz pedals, the gain knob can impact both the amount of distortion and the overall volume level. If you increase the gain, you get a louder sound with more distortion, and if you decrease the gain, you can lower the volume and make the sound cleaner. However, not all pedals have a gain control that directly affects volume, so you need to experiment a bit to find the right balance for your sound and effects chain.
What is the point of a booster pedal?
A boost pedal boosts the signal strength of a guitar, increasing the overall volume and providing an overdriven sound.
